Eye-on-Retail Daily Tipsheet Archives

TARGET ADDS CAROLINE’S CART TO MOST STORES – What Target is doing to make shopping easier for people with special needs by Aimee Blanchette at Star Tribune. “These carts will be amazing because we’ll only need the cart instead of both a stroller and a cart,” the Coon Rapids dad said. “This will make it more efficient.”Read more

SPORTS AUTHORITY MAY CLOSE NEARLY HALF OF ITS STORES – Sports Authority eyes Chapter 11 bankruptcy by Mark Harden at Denver Business Journal. “The company faces a deadline in 10 days to pay $20 million in interest on a $343 million loan that matures in 2018. It earlier had skipped the payment.”Read more

Furniture Giant IKEA Loses Its Trademark in Indonesia by Niniek Karmini at AP via ABC News. “The Supreme Court’s ruling was made in May last year, but only surfaced publicly Thursday with its publication online by the court.”Read more

CAN SEARS HOLD APPLIANCE LEAD IN CANADA? Stocking major appliances at Rona key to Lowe’s ambitious goal by Marina Strauss at Globe & Mail. “Mr. Prud’homme said Lowe’s has surpassed Sears south of the border as the top appliance seller and “we’re having really good success here in appliances at Lowe’s Canada. There’s no reason for us to think we can’t be as successful with appliances with the rest of the network.”Read more

LOWE’S CANADA MOVES HQ – Why Lowe’s Canada’s president says Rona is a better fit now than in 2012: ‘We are both in a much better place’ by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post. “Lowe’s headquarters is moving to Boucherville, even as most of its current head office employees live in Toronto. “We will keep an office in Toronto,” Prud’homme said, adding the details have not been finalized of the head office move. “With the growth we have put into the plan, there is room for everybody.”Read more

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TWO MILLION STRONG – Apple Pay Is Now Accepted at Millions of Stores by Leena Rao at Fortune. “Apple used the latest update about Apple Pay to relay that it is growing faster than expected. CEO Tim Cook had set a goal of the service being accepted by 1.5 million U.S. stores by the end of 2015.”Read more

Amazon Offers Free Square Credit Card Readers to Former Amazon Local Register Customers by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “First, Amazon wanted to compete with Square. Now it is playing nice. The e-commerce giant is offering free Square credit card readers, which retail for $10, to business owners who had previously bought an Amazon Local Register.”Read more

JC Penney pursues sale of home office campus at CNBC. “J.C. Penney on Friday said it is pursuing the potential sale and partial leaseback of its headquarters building in Plano, Texas in an effort to reduce debt and costs.”Read more

Cabela’s announces opening date for first Houston-area store by Olivia Pulsinelli at Houston Business Journal. “The store features Cabela’s new layout and will include an aquarium, an indoor archery range, an express cafe and other elements…This is Cabela’s sixth store in Texas.”Read more

HEB DIVISION PRESIDENT DISHES ON STRATEGY – ‘That H-E-B Guy’ discusses retailer’s success, business model by Jennifer Summer at The Observer. “H-E-B Houston Division President Scott McClelland shared the H-E-B business model and what it has taken for H-E-B to be successful among a myriad of grocery stores in southeast Texas at the Greater East Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce’s lunch Feb. 3…”Read more

Urgent Care Market Braces For CVS And Walgreens Entry by Bruce Japsen at Forbes. “CVS or Walgreens will attempt to enter the standalone urgent care and primary care spaces in the next 12 to 24 months,” Gordon Maner, managing partner of investment bank Allen Mooney Barnes said in a report…For their part, neither Walgreens nor CVS say they have plans to get into the urgent care business.”Read more

Aldi named the best place to buy wine in the UK by Martha Cliff at Daily Mail. “One in every 13 bottles of wine sold in the UK last year was from Aldi, which received 167 international awards in 2015 for its offerings of beers, wines and spirits.”Read more

The Maker of Taylor Swift Perfume Says Celebrity Fragrance Sales Are Falling by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “…last year, celebrity and designer fragrances sales fell 17%. Those declines continued into the first two quarters of the current fiscal year.”Read more

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Plus-Size Woman Barred from Trying on Sweater at Walmart Because She Would ‘Stretch It’